>> >> >> business news from the capital region -- this is washington business report " "with rebecca cooper. thank >> for j joining us for lookok at busineness and finance and the washingtgton region. this week left invtors trying to decide whwhether to celebrate ththe unexpected strong job numberor frereak out about the fiscal cliff. josh boke declarered cliliffhangnging coulbe causing an nation breakdown. the president's supporters are pointing to o 146,000 new jobs created in november but the president's critics emphasisize the e half-million discouraged american to chchose not to look for work wer the unemployment rate to 7.7%. we've got a round table prered

to discussss all this. jo boike barbabara lane, and alanana fein. welcome to our undtable. sh y wrotete a whole article about this whole national members break down. what is your interpretation? >> we shoulde passing this now. the president gets as much leverage as we get closer to the new yearhen tax is actuay go up. john boehner knows this and obama knows this so we will not see the conontotours of a deal yet. but that does not mean that the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence. 9 >> i noticed thahat while being out for r a week with the the flu

is that nothing changein t wes i was gone.e. nothing has changed in months. it is aithetical washington does. they don't get a any kind of acaction until the last possible minute and the binesss community y hates that. theyey want t to seeee some kind of stability or predictality. wawall street needs to figure out how damaging this is to play this game. >> washington will interpret wall street as washington sees fit. wall street can say whatever it wants and can send the market into a tailspin. there will be a rponse from a repupublican or democr that will paint that tailspin in their favor. it is not just about the numbers.s. it i not in n it -- is about more than $500 billion in tax cuts. it'ss about a veryragilele psychology for this country. we see constandysfunction.

alan kruer a has said this could d be dastatiting. there are psychchological srs leftft by this and we try to see evidence of that today with the drop in consumer confidence. that reading is a harsh remininder of what could a way to end it will really ve a big impact as we get oser to the holiday shopping season. one small businessman said to the presidident that nt time you scscdule thi don't do itt around christmas >> barbara ley in, what is s it businesseses aree more anxus about? arare they more excited about the grow in jobs o more anxious about the uncertainty in washington? >> they are anxious about the uncertainty. business people like prededictability whether it is good, bad, or whatevever. they want to know what they are dedealing with but people aree still uncomfortable and on well

into thosese expansions and unwilling to hire a loof people because they just don't know whahat the public policy will bring. >> what are you hearing are the bibiggest concerns? are they concerned that we will only get a temporary bill? are they weren't there ll not be a deal at all? >> i think people generally feel there will be someme sort of deal. there is kicking down the can down the road a little bit longer, i think of a fid you will get something. what we would like to see is to get it done and get it done now. right nowow i'm a smallll organization i havave difficulty plannining. i am in no y like the rge ceo's in our area. we wou like to see something gett done. i don't know whether we will see

that or not. >> alana,your message to small bubusinesses and entrepreneurs -- wead ann entreprenr on recentlyho defined risk- takiking anot listening to conventional wisdom but yet when isked him about his advice t and en starting a business even he said don't dot, there's too much uncecertainty. what is your take? >> from thehe of entrepreneurs perspective, when you look at the unemployment rate and people dropping outut of the work rce, you could argue this is a great time to take it risk and started siness. >> if you can g get a job youou might asell eate your owown. >> t they say m make aa j, don'tt take a job. it is fundamenta to our economy to have more small businesssses. we f focus o on having our stutudents at the unirsity of marylandd

chcheck out onto power norship -- to check out entreeneu ship on the flip side, from a credit peperspective, you need some st ofapital whether b big or small to get something started. this may be a grt ti for t the entrepreneneur, mak it difficult wh allhis ununcertainty may be keeping peop on t the sidelines fr investing. from the investor perspective if they don't start seeing something g that will really stick,k, they ll stay onhe sidelines because they don'tt want to see thihis dete happen over again in six months. >> i thi that's what congress will do. i think t they will try to save

theieir own hide by coming up with a band--aid approach. that c could really undermine anyy kind of activity. dave cody fr honeyeywell saysys it is cowardly. you u talked about howonsumer confidence is defing ththis but it is only just t catcng up with where the business s confididence s been for some te. what are you hearing from the busineness community in teterms of whatat they think for next year? >> it is like someone is putting together a cooki dough and you don't ow how it willll taste when it bakes. a deal could take a variety of different directions. was to pull it outut of the oven, it might be burned or set the house on fire.

the business communitynows this andnd that is why yoyou see the prpressure by many ceo's were talking to t the whihite house on this. it is not like bararack obama is popular in many board rooms. they often see him as n not getting cacapitalism but he meets th thehese ceo's and say they -- and d they say this is a plan we can work with. that said, t this is really critic -- negotiatate a sine deal is very different than negotiating popolitil deals. there is so many different dynamics going on and therare egos and personal issues and ideoeological rigidity. it is not just on the republican side to. >> barbara le, what d do bubusinesses want to see in terms of composition of this deal? the obama administration has talked about including new stimulus funds. are you hearing any specific stepare small businesesses

lobbying congress to include inserts forhe distric >> in the district, there are certain industries that we foc on. technology is one ofhose. it is part of the mayor's five- year plan to make d.c. a technolology hub. that wou be industry y we wod certainllook at. e challenge is that the presidenentill say theevenueue increases and the president wants to raise the tax on the upper i income of $250,0,000 and above. there is a bitit of a challenge with that cause that can hurt small business entrepreneurs. we've got to take a brereak but when w we come back, we will do our number of ththe week bu first, i want to talk to you abouwhether small businesses are lining up against some of

the big corporations. state-owned for more. -- stay tuned fo you won't take my life. you won't take our future. aids affects us all. even babies. chevron is working to stop mother-to-child trsmission. our employees and theheir families are part of the fight. and we're winning. at chevron nigeria,e haveven't had a reported case in 12 years. aids is strong. aids is strong. but we are stronger. and aids... ♪ ♪ aids is going to lose. aids is going to lose. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] this commercial is not about getting fios; it's about getting fios. that moment after you finally got it that you actually get it. when you can see blades of artificial grass in their full glory you get it.

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♪ ♪ >> we've got more with the rnd table the first, the number of the week. our number is the week is for homeowners - -- 4.5 is the percrcentatage i increrease of the median home in the d.c. area. that is the good news. that n number does lag behind t national average of 6.3% growth. redud inventory and stronger demand are behind the rising

national average and houses in the district were up 6% and virginia 4.4% and maryland, 3.8% more. housing values have beeeen stroronger throughout the recession. we will bebe right back. >> you've seen the many headlines dealing with the big stories in the business of government like sequestrationon and cyber security and the rereform of the e-gov act. alan gross has been sitting in a cuban jail cell since december, two dozen 9 for setting up internet equipment while working on a u.s. aid program. he filed a $60 million lawsuit against his employer and the u.s. governmenclaiming he was never told of the risk that he faced. the chinese contractors have seen strong growth selling to european and latin american governments yet the chinese international contract association clas growth may slow in 2013 as the econy

deteriorates in these countries. finally, the amecan society of civil engineers releaeased a study inting out the dangers that the governmentundergfund infrastructures project. this will be a topic at the cbs government discussio♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> we are bacwith judge bokoke, ana fein,nd barbara lane. welcome back to you all. i want t to talk to you, ala

about whwhat is going on at e dingmancrr. >> cup'sup is a n national busiss competition sponsored by the ceof under aor and maryland a alumni focused on student binesses, not busins planans. these are s student entrepreneneurs starting their businesses and have some initial revenue off. for the past sevenearsrs, we have b been doing this foror university of maryland students that w we arare expaing it to a national comtition. ancurrent stutudentr recent alum can compete inin ts competition. you have a segegment oyour websitite where you talk to some of the previs winners a and many of them are still growining.

one says e is on several different mpuses andoing of viral and another one ren out frigerators. >>this tells the story of what we are focusing on withiving students' e exposure to the entrepreneur orial process. kevin plank at a flower delivery servic the lessons he l learnede d that experience and he says had the conviction to then srt under armor. >> i'm glad he swihedrom flowerers to undershirts. >> exactly. >> baara, we have talked about what businesesses need and seen the grorowth of new trepreurwho want to know the economy wl berowing. are e there any bght spots in e economy in this area for next year? i think there are..

a couple oferiodicals have ranked the city as number three i believe inn terms ofrowing technology a and the enentrreneur when you lk at thehe major compans that have go to northern virginia, ey have done extremely well, and they started at columbia. -- and they y started in the district of columb one of the things we need t to do is to keep them in dc. tting cial has made the decision to stay in the district of columbia.a. --iving social has ma the decision t to stay in the district of columumbi there was a report rectlthat showed that only 83 comnies in the d.c. area havave 500 emoyee that is out of 22,000 cpanies. you look at wherehe

oprtunities e. over 10,000 bubusiness have 1-4 emplees. that is the market. how w can we make it attractctive for moref t tho to be in our city? >> what do likebout the mayor's plan? >> we arare eased to see e plan. this is the first time that t we have seen an economic plan in the 11 years i have been in this job that talks about enomic development and not just shovels in the grounund. this has a broad, far-reaching approach over five years to bring in 1,000 new jobs into the c city and $1 billion of revenue. >> whatat about the spefics? is it the tming up of universisities? what are the specifics >> certainly that but i think the focus on indusustry -- technology is a one, e and

meds - education and medical is the second -- prossnal rvices and hospitaty. h'd you grow each of those segments and the city? the governmentannot do this by themseselves. the private sector has to lead and move this along. it is the prive sector at willll create these jobs. we arere very pleased to have them present t plan to m bod nexteek. we are excited about it. >> thehe investigaon off the mayor's campaign continues you haveee questioned about whether businenesses were told there were ways they could ntribute off the books to the mayor's campaign. can you shed anyny light on this? >> i knew you would ask me this. unlilike m many people in this town, whenomebebody tells m me something

confidential, it will remain just that and we will leave it there. >> you did d not call me once this week and say don't ask. had a feeling you could not talk aboutut it but we look forward to when you can shed more light on this. where do you see a any brit spots nextxt year? there anything you u can say where the business commuty has pe in this town? >> sure,here are plenty reasons for hope. we are still in a better situation with regd to jobs that we weweret this point last year. one of e seaeasonal patterns we have seen is that much o of the job growth occurs in the wiwinter of the new year and the spring. that has tradititionally bn the peri and we hahave to ok to seif that paern is maintained in 2013. the send thihing is we're seeing channel look k betterit

some of theirir readingngs which will have a posive impact on trade. most importantly we have two years b before another election. that creates a lot o of room. ththat gives focus to get policy done. for all the yelling and scaming, they y have at least one year to get legislation passed beforth hit the campaign trail ain >> alana what is the mood of young p peoplple today when they look at the economy? are theyeell ffefearful o determrmined? >> i think they have an enthusiasm about making eir own path. they see -- eveven if they don't want t to star something of their own, they see worki aa smalleler starof t the house under 10 employees as a a viable oion verses worngt a fortune 500 company. i think we see a lot of f a mix

betweenn the social entrepreneurs a social ventures committ to how they can give back and lookingng at things n not jt in cial and economic valalue but social value.e. weee thiscross campus >> got toive e the last word to bbara lang. you have a magic nber that the white hoehould agree to when it comomes to the individual tax rate? >> 500,000. >> do you think that can be sold in washington? >> the topop rate is 39.6%. >> we got ago.

♪♪ ♪ ♪ >> thanks for joing as. we would like to remind you ththat you have optio o on how to connect with "washingtonn siness report." we hope to see you right back here again next sunday. i am rebea cooper, thank you for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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